by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

OKLAHOMA CITY - In the three special seasons in which James Harden, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the rest of the Oklahoma City Thunder wrote their small-market story of a young and fun team on the rise, they developed a bond that bordered on brotherhood.

In Harden's first trip back since he was so shockingly traded to the Houston Rockets on Oct. 28, he was the little brother they all beat up on in a 120-98 loss at Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Harden, the reigning sixth man of the year who had spent most of this season showing why he was worthy of the max deal he was never going to get here, missed his first nine shots and finished 3-for-16 from the field with 17 mostly-meaningless points. He was one of the many Rockets who were well within their right to claim fatigue as a factor, as the team had endured an emotional two-day stretch in which they played Tuesday night in Houston, attended the funeral Wednesday morning in Minneapolis for coach Kevin McHale's daughter and arrived Wednesday afternoon in Oklahoma City. Sasha McHale died Saturday after losing her battle to Lupus.

"Just to be competing against those guys (was good), and to finally get this over with - to play here and get this over with and now continue on with the season," Harden said. "(But) I think when you travel on the same day, and you get here a few hours before off a back to back, there's just a lot of things that happened in these last 24 hours. But like I said, it's something that we had to do."

Stand-in Rockets coach Kelvin Sampson said, "I thought he was pressing. I'm not sure he would admit it, but just looking at himā?¦I thought he was pressing a little bit."

It wasn't the first time Harden had felt pressure from the Thunder.

When the two sides couldn't come to terms on an extension, Harden was given approximately an hour to decide whether to take the latest offer or run the risk of being traded, he says. He received the news that he had been sent to Houston while dining with his family at a Cheesecake Factory in Oklahoma City and admitted he was stunned.

"I was lost (when he heard)," Harden told USA TODAY Sports. "I got traded? I don't know what that means. Traded? I'm really leaving OKC, really going to Houston? Lost. I was at a loss for words."

The question of why the Thunder would break up a good thing has everything to do with the league's new collective bargaining agreement that was agreed upon after the lockout in 2011, as the devastating luxury tax that was added makes it virtually impossible for small-market teams to carry three stars at maximum salary contracts. Durant got his, as did Westbrook, and forward Serge Ibaka was then signed to a four-year, $48 million deal in August. In a climate in which the Thunder's television deal is a measly 13% annually the Los Angeles Lakers' (reportedly $15 million versus $200 million), there was a limit to what the Thunder could do.

Harden, 23, either misread the situation or perhaps he yearned to be out on his own as a leading man. Either way, he should have known the Thunder wouldn't give him the money he wanted.

They spent four months negotiating with him and his agent, Rob Pelinka, and anyone who had tracked the career of the team's general manager, Sam Presti, knows of his tendency to act deliberately and, when necessary, swiftly. So with Harden hell-bent on landing a maximum deal of four years and $58.5 million, Presti dealt him (with three others) to Houston for veteran scorer Kevin Martin, rookie shooting guard Jeremy Lamb, two first-round picks and a second-round pick. Harden, who told USA TODAY Sports that the final offer from the Thunder was for four years and $53 million, said he was not aware that Houston was a possibility until the deal was done.

"I mean obviously there's always a possibility (of being traded), but in my situation I (wasn't) thinking about getting traded," he told USA TODAY Sports. "I'm thinking about getting a deal done. But the day I got traded, they basically said I had an hour or whatever the case may be to decide."

Harden was deserving of the warm welcome received from the fans, but some local news reporters weren't so kind. They pressed him for answers as to why he spoke so often about sacrifice but ultimately wouldn't take less money.

"No, it wasn't (about money)," Harden said. "Well, I mean obviously it was majority, partly about the money, butā?¦I was put in a tough situation to where things didn't happen the way that (he) wanted (them) to.

"I thought I did sacrifice. I thought I sacrificed coming off the bench. I could've tried to be a starter and messed the whole thing up. But I sacrificed coming off the bench in order for the betterment of the team, so there was a lot of different things I thought I sacrificed to make the Thunder better."

Harden's first field goal may have come because of sympathy. Thunder forward Serge Ibaka, so widely known for his relentless blocking ways, made no attempt on Harden's running layup early in the third quarter, and the sellout crowd that gave him a rousing cheer during pregame introductions seemed strangely relieved that his brutal streak had been broken. It was the only form of brotherly love he would enjoy all night.

He had seven of his shots blocked, two by Ibaka, and spent most of the night attempting to guard Durant en route to his 37-point outing. Harden was down a key running mate, as second-leading scorer Chandler Parsons is out with an arm injury.

The most symbolic sequence of them all came in the early fourth quarter, when Harden - who scored 14 of his 17 points after the Thunder led 57-45 at halftime - blew by former teammate Thabo Sefolosha while going to his left only to have his shot swallowed by Durant at the rim. That led to a Durant three-pointer that put Oklahoma City up 13. Harden, who entered as the league's fifth leading scorer (25.1 points per game) and was shooting 44.2 percent from the field, hit just 3 of 16 shots in all. The Rockets fell to 7-8, while the 12-4 Thunder are now just one game off their pace from last season (a 13-3 start) when they ultimately fell to the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.

The brothers were back together again, but only one had taken a beating.

"I'm never going to be upset that he's playing well, or that he left," Durant said. "Of course it was a little different, difficult to deal with at first. But he's with Houston, and he's over there playing well and he has his own team. He's leading those guys in the right direction. You're happy for one of your brothers that you've grown up with in this league."